Breast feeding in public OK

Nursing moms will be able to breast feed in public without fear of intimidation, said state senators, who unanimously passed a bill to protect that right Tuesday.

Lindsey Parietti

Nursing moms will be able to breast feed in public without fear of intimidation, said state senators, who unanimously passed a bill to protect that right Tuesday.
The bill, which must also be approved by the House, would prevent women from facing lewdness or indecent exposure charges and give them legal recourse if they are denied the ability to breast feed in public.
In previous years the bill has enjoyed support in the Senate but was not taken up by the House.
Rep. David Linsky, D-Natick, who sponsored earlier versions of the bill, said that he would urge House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi to allow the House to vote on the legislation.
“There have been many instances of women who have been intimidated and hassled by security guards and authorities and occasionally but not very often police officers who think that somehow what they’re doing is illegal,” Linsky said. “The point of this law is to make to clear that it is not illegal in any way.”
DiMasi spokesman David Guarino said the speaker has not taken a position on the bill.
Evelyn Riley, public policy director of the Massachusetts Family Institute, said the conservative family values organization supports nursing moms, but wants the bill to include language requiring modesty and discretion.
“A mother taking her kids on the bus should not have to worry about running into an exhibitionist that would like to abuse this law,” she said. “…(Breast feeding is) done with a modest covering and no flagrant or wanton exposure.”
Lindsey Parietti can be reached at lindsey.parietti@cnc.com